Man City marked back-to-back wins with a 2-0 win over Leicester City on Wednesday night, in a game that reaffirmed City’s quality in the Premier League.
Albeit, Leicester City were terrible. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side offered absolutely nothing and never, ever looked like laying a finger on Manchester City who could have easily won the game by four or five goals.
Omar Marmoush stepped in after Erling Haaland’s injury blow and lead the line effectively, getting himself on the scoresheet along with Jack Grealish who scored his first Premier League goal of the season after just two minutes of the game.
It’s a win that lifts Pep Guardiola’s side into 4th place of the Premier League table, though City are just one point ahead of Newcastle United in 5th and two ahead of Chelsea in 6th, with both Newcastle and Chelsea having a game in hand on City.
Next up, Man City play in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday. Pep has some team selection decisions to make before then with his teams against Bournemouth and Leicester City boasting several changes.
Photo by Lee Parker - CameraSport via Getty Images
Photo by Lee Parker – CameraSport via Getty Images
Shaun Wright-Phillips hails Nico O’Reilly performance in Man City 2-0 Leicester City
Nico O’Reilly has been the talk among Man City fans of late. In the FA Cup win over Bournemouth, O’Reilly put in a Man of the Match display after coming off the bench to inspire the comeback win, with Pep then giving the 20-year-old a starting spot against Leicester City at left-back.
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Although he had very little to do on the night, Shaun Wright-Phillips was impressed nonetheless, saying on Matchday Live after the game: “It’s a hard one today. If I’m going off the quarter-final, tremendous. Bournemouth don’t hold back do they, they go for it hammer and tongs. He dealt with everything in that game.
“This game was a different type of game, sort of game where he had to be more concentrated than say, your Bournemouth game, because half the time he never had to do anything defending.
“But what I will say, is when he had to do the things defending, he did it perfectly right. Even when the ball’s gone over his head and he’s had to make the ground up, he stayed up as long as possible, didn’t dive in, and he made them pass it back, and by the time they pass it back, all City players are back, so that’s his job done.
“So for me, in terms of all that he was fantastic. But it was nice to see him have to concentrate 100%, even when he’s not doing nothing.”
Man City star is a huge fan of Nico O’Reilly
O’Reilly is looking like he could quickly become the next young Man City star to make a real impact in the first-team and become a key player for Pep. It comes at the perfect time too with Man City needing to freshen up the playing squad in the next summer transfer window.
And his performances have not only caught the eye of fans but of his teammates too. Speaking after Bournemouth, Bernardo Silva hailed O’Reilly’s performance, saying of the Englishman: “It’s difficult for a 20-year-old like Nico to settle into a team like Man City, to be patient enough because he has great players in his position and to keep going, work hard and he’s a good example.
“The small amount of opportunities he has, he’s taking them and that’s a great example for the rest of the young guys. So it’s showing he deserves a place in this team and he can have more opportunities.”
Statistic Nico O’Reilly vs Leicester City
Touches 90 (5th)
Completed passes 64 (6th)
Key passes 1
Defensive action 5 (2nd)
Clearances 3 (2nd)
Though with such a big game coming up on Sunday, and with O’Reilly having played the last two, expect him to drop back down to the bench for the game against Man United.
Kick off is at 4:30pm on Sunday.